November 26, 2001	Monday	Ramazan 10, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 25: The president of Muzaffarabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Syed Kifayat Hussain Naqvi, has accused the bureaucracy of using negative tactics to discourage investments in Azad Kashmir, and asked the AJK president to correct the working of official machinery to achieve the goal of industrialization in the state.

Talking to newsmen here on Saturday, he threatened that if the situation did not improve he and his colleagues would be left with no choice but to launch a movement against the “negative-minded” bureaucracy soon after Eid.

“Before inviting industrialists to invest in Azad Kashmir, the president should create an industry-friendly atmosphere in the state,” he demanded, maintaining that making investment in the liberated territory, in the prevailing situation, was tantamount to committing suicide.

He particularly criticized the electricity department, alleging that bogus billing had led to the closure of several industrial units. “In Muzaffarabad alone, two flour mills had to be shut down due to excesses of the electricity department,” added Mr Naqvi, who owns one of these mills.

He also slammed the role of almost all scheduled banks, save the National Bank, in the promotion of industrialization in Azad Kashmir.

Billions of rupees of the AJK people and institutions were deposited in different banks, but none of them, other than the NBP, was spending even 5 per cent of its profit on the uplift of Azad Kashmir people, he added.

Mr Naqvi said the chamber would organize seminars.